Shortly after longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) revealed Wednesday that she would not run for reelection next year, she opened up about why she chose to forgo a 2026 campaign – and didn’t hold back on what she thinks about two of her possible Republican replacements.
Spilling details into the thinking that formed her political decision – seen as a blow to Senate Democrats – Shaheen, 78, told Semafor she thinks the Democratic Party is in well enough shape for it to “hold on to the seat” in next year's midterm elections “given where I think the country’s going to be.”
While Shaheen, a former state senator and New Hampshire governor before serving three terms in the Senate, is bowing out of politics, she still had sharp words for Republicans. In an interview on Wednesday, she seemed unconcerned about two GOP names being floated as possible candidates to take on her seat: former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA).
“You didn’t hear me say [this]: When you write the stories, please write that he colors his hair, and I don’t,” she told Semafor when asked if she thinks Brown will jump into the race. “I don’t know, he’s making noises. He’s not from New Hampshire. He hasn’t done anything in New Hampshire except pretend like he’s bringing candidates into the state.”
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Shaheen added: “You ask him, his big accomplishment is he coaches a women’s basketball team, and it’s in Massachusetts.”
Sununu, she said, is “talking about how he wants to be part of the Trump-Musk-DOGE effort.”
“That doesn’t play very well in New Hampshire, and I think it’s going to play less well the longer we go into their efforts,” she told the publication. “So that’s the position that he’s taking. I think that’s not going to be a very popular position.”
And she saved some shots for President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk, whose dismantling of the government – which includes mass firings of federal employees – is “one of the things that’s so distressing” about what the administration is doing.
“Because they’re saying to people: We don’t appreciate your public service,” she said.
